Shia LaBeouf 'retiring from all public life'

Sorry, bloggers. You don’t have Shia LaBeouf to kick around any more, because, ladies and gentlemen, he’s retiring.

In a message this morning, the 27-year-old Transformers star announced he was retiring. “In light of the recent attacks against my artistic integrity, I am retiring from all public life,” he wrote. “My love goes out to those who have supported me. #stopcreating.”

A lot of what exactly that means remains unclear: Will his Twitter account remain intact? Will he eschew public appearances for upcoming films? Will he regress to watching old Even Stevens reruns on Disney channel, wondering where he went wrong? Do we care?

In additional to career woes, his legal troubles for this plagiarism scandal “performance art” seem far from over. Yesterday, LaBeouf tweeted out a cease & desist letter from the legal team behind Daniel Clowes, the comic artist whose work LaBeouf plagiarized. Futher legal action is unclear.

Offscreen, do you think we have we seen the last of LaBeouf?

Buy apparel and accessories from Amazon here

'Zero Dark Thirty': Docs made public

Photo: Jonathan Olley.

It turns out the CIA and Pentagon officials were just big fans of The Hurt Locker.

New documents pertaining to government and military cooperation on the Osama bin Laden takedown film Zero Dark Thirty (out Dec. 19) were posted Tuesday evening by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, but they fail to confirm the organization’s theory that director Kathryn Bigelow and producer-screenwriter Mark Boal were given special access for the sake of political gains.

In fact, media relations officials discussed the need to be fair to others who were seeking similar information about the May 2, 2011 raid — and they told each other one reason to speak to Boal and Bigelow was for the sake of learning more about the project themselves.

Nowhere in the documents does any representative of the CIA or Department of Defense ever express interest in the project for propaganda purposes. Rather, they talk about the respect they have for Bigelow and Boal’s Oscar-winning Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker, as well as their work for charities aiding military families.

In their requests for access, Boal and Bigelow also revealed the secret working title of the film — For God and Country.

All of the documents are available here, along with Judicial Watch’s continued insistence that “the Obama administration granted Boal and Bigelow unusual access to agency information in preparation for their film.”

In a June 7, 2011, exchange with Defense Department spokesman George E. Little, CIA spokesperson Marie Harf indicated that the agency had received requests from Imagine Entertainment and director Ron Howard for help on a possible bin Laden project, but indicated the Boal/Bigelow film was more worthy of the access due to their pedigree and the likelihood it would actually happen:

I know we don’t “pick favorites’ but it makes sense to get behind the winning horse … I am sure Imagine is talking about working with Howard, but Mark and Kathryn’s movie is going to be the first and the biggest. It’s got the most money behind it, and two Oscar winners on board. It’s just not a close call. We can certainly talk to Howard, but I don’t think they should all get this kind of CTC [Counterterrorism Center] treatment, that’s all.

Little responds by advocating for broader access in general, if only for the sake of making contacts with Howard’s talent agency CAA:

No one’s talking about the full-on CTC treatment. Just SOME CIA treatment at this stage. I don’t think anyone disagrees that we should place most of our betting money on the Boal project at this point. We have to do our due diligence with others, and it doesn’t hurt to establish stronger relationships with CAA and others even if their projects don’t move forward.

On June 15, 2011, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Douglas Wilson sent this email to Benjamin Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, saying how well-regarded The Hurt Locker was and identifying one of the military charities Bigelow has helped, CIA director Leon Panetta was, apparently, eager to assist the film:

Both Boal and Bigelow are well-known to both Geoff [Morrell, Department of Defense spokesman] and me. Both Geoff and I highly respect both of them. (FYI, Bigelow is actively assisting in Hollywood on “Joining Forces” and other military family issues.) SD Gates shares that admiration for their previous film efforts. Boal has been working with us and with CIA (via George Little [Department of Defense spokesman]) for initial context briefings — at DoD this [has] been provided by Mike Vickers and at CIA by relevant officials with the full knowledge and full approval/support of Director Panetta.

Wilson also indicates a desire to learn more about the limits on information that could be shared with the filmmakers, as well as others looking to dramatize the raid.

Our overall engagement with Boal and Bigelow to date has been pretty general. But as this progresses, mike Vickers and I (and I’m sure Goerge as well) would welcome guidance regarding parameters, in particular those for Boal and Bigelow.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Jamie Smith responded in an email that indicated the military and intelligence communities were assisting the film well before the White House got involved.

I’m not sure I understood that this was as far along so would definitely be great to link up and chat soonest and get a sense of what DoD and CIA have communicated thus far. Would also love to know any other folks you have heard from since last we spoke, or plan to meet with — books, docus, additional movies, etc.

This would seemingly undermine the claim by Judicial Watch and Congressman Steve King (R-NY) that President Obama was helping the filmmakers to remind voters of his role in authorizing the raid on bin Laden’s compound. (In his first interview about the film, Boal told EW that Obama was not even depicted in the movie, which focuses instead on the behind-the-scenes teams who hunted down the terrorist.)

On June 15 2011, the DoD’s Little wrote to DoD’s Wilson:

The Boal/Bigelow movie is the most mature and high-profile of the projects I’ve heard about. We’ve also been contacted by a former NYT reporter, Howard Blum, who’s trying to put something together but doesn’t seem to have a studio lined up yet. I’m not sure if he’ll get traction or not.

That same day, Mark Boal wrote to DoD’s Wilson and Philip Strub, entertainment media liaison for the Department of Defense, to coordinate a meeting, indicating  he had already done a lot of research and would like to consult with the department:

I’ve been talking to various folks in the intel and military community in order to research the film, and wanted to reach out to you as well to give you a sense of our plans for the film going forward.

Rhodes wrote to Wilson, Little, and Smith that one reason to meet with the filmmakers would be to learn more about what Boal was working on.

We are trying to have visibility into the UBL [Usama bin Laden] projects, and this is likely the most high profile one. Would like to have whoever the group is that’s going around in here at the WH [White House] to get a sense of what they’re doing/ what cooperation they are seeking. Jamie will be POC.

On July 14, 2011, Boal’s assistant, Jonathan Leven, emailed the CIA’s Harf to ask if open-source floor plans they’d acquired for what was said to be bin Laden’s compound were indeed accurate. Harf replied:

That floor plan matches up with what we have.

Boal wrote to Harf, asking for more details, such as wall height:

We will be building a full scale replica of the house. Including the inhabitants of the animal pen!

Harf joked:

That animal pen is kinda gross, but I totally applaud your effort.

Judicial Watch included the schematics in their document dump.

There were a handful of revelations in the collection of emails. One of them was that Boal apparently met with a translator who accompanied the SEAL Team Six on the raid. (And once again, there was some Hurt Locker fandom going on.)

Per CIA spokesperson Harf:

The mtgs on Friday went really, really well. Mr. Morell [Michael Morell, deputy director of the CIA] gave them 40 minutes, talked some of the substance again, told them we’re here to help with whatever they need, and gushed to Kathryn about how much he loved The Hurt Locker.

…

Tomorrow, they’ll be meeting with [redacted] Little that Boal and Bigelow would be “meeting individually with both [name redacted] and the translator who was on the raid.

The most shocking disclosure of secret information revealed in the documents was an email in which New York Times national security writer Mark Mazzetti leaked the contents of columnist Maureen Dowd’s column about the bin Laden film to the CIA’s Harf, what can only be described as a shocking betrayal to a fellow journalist:

In an Aug. 5, 2011, email, he wrote:

This didn’t come from me … and please delete after you read. See, nothing to worry about.

Mazzetti also wrote to Harf that the column would say:

Boal got high level access at Pentagon.

Harf responded:

He also got good access at the WH [White House] btw …

When Boal was asked in his EW interview about Zero Dark Thirty if he had an interview with President Obama, he laughed — somewhat irritated — and said “Next.”

After the disclosure of these documents, it’s likely to be a question he is asked again.

For more film news
Follow @breznican

Read More:
Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama bin Laden pic sparks pentagon inquiry
Defense Secretary Panetta: Filmmakers provided no unauthorized info for bin Laden movie
Jessica Chastain to co-star in Osama bin Laden takedown film

Buy apparel and accessories from Amazon here

Man's public suicide in Greece becomes a potent symbol before election

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek pensioner's suicide outside parliament has quickly become a symbol of the pain of austerity and has been seized upon by opponents of the budget cuts imposed by Greece's international lenders.

The 77-year-old retired pharmacist, Dimitris Christoulas, shot himself in the head on Wednesday after saying that financial troubles had pushed him over the edge. A suicide note said he preferred to die than scavenge for food.

The highly public - and symbolic - nature of the suicide prompted an outpouring of sympathy from Greeks, who set up an impromptu shrine where he killed himself with hand-written notes condemning the crisis. Some protested at night, clashing with riot police who sent them home in clouds of tear gas.

On Thursday, dozens of Greeks gathered around the shrine, leaving flowers and candles, and the "Indignant" protesters who held daily sit-ins for months last year said they would hold a second day of protests. A separate protest was planned in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

The conservative newspaper Eleftheros Typos called the victim a "martyr for Greece" and said his act was filled with "profound political symbolism" that could "shock Greek society and the political world and awaken their conscience" before a parliamentary election to determine Greece's future.

Anger over the suicide was directed as much at politicians as it was at the harsh austerity medicine prescribed by foreign lenders in return for aid to lift the country out of its worst economic crisis since World War Two.

"It's horrible. We shouldn't have reached this point. The politicians in parliament who brought us here should be punished for this," said Anastassia Karanika, a 60-year-old pensioner.

So far this week, police reported that at least four people have tried to kill themselves because of financial troubles.

In one case, a 35-year-old cafe owner in central Greece was hospitalized in a critical condition on Tuesday after drinking pesticide because he feared his business would be seized by the bank if he failed to pay his mortgage.

With the election likely to take place on May 6, smaller parties opposed to harsh spending cuts included in the country's second bailout were quick to point the finger of blame at bigger parties backing the rescue.

"Those who should have committed suicide - who should have committed suicide a long time ago - are the politicians who knowingly decided to bring this country and its people to this state of affairs," said Panos Kammenos, a conservative lawmaker who recently set up the Independent Greeks anti-austerity party.

SHAME ON THEM

Smaller parties like the Independent Greeks have been riding high in opinion polls before the election at the expense of the two main co-ruling parties, the conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK, which backed the bailout.

The two big parties are together expected to take less than 40 percent of the vote. Losing more voters to the smaller parties could put them at risk of not having enough seats in parliament to forge a pro-bailout coalition again.

That in turn would have profound implications for Greece's finances, given continued aid from European partners and the International Monetary Fund depends on Greece's new government pushing through reforms.

"The main issue is not the suicide itself but the reasons behind it," said Thomas Gerakis from the Marc pollster group.

"The problem is far more serious than a single suicide. It shows that there is a serious - and growing - problem of people in despair."

New Democracy and PASOK, which have ruled Greece for decades, expressed their sorrow for the tragedy. Political opponents attacked them for joining in the mourning.

"Shame on them. The accomplices responsible for the suffering and despair of the Greek people ... should at least keep quiet in the face of the hideous results of the capitalist crisis and their policies, instead of pretending to be saviors and sensitive," the KKE Communist party said.

The suicide comes amid rising resentment in Greece over repeated rounds of wage and pension cuts that have compounded the pain from a slump which has seen the economy shrink by a fifth since 2008.

Unemployment has surged to a record 21 percent - twice the euro zone average - with one out of two young people without a job. The number of suicides jumped 18 percent in 2010, and many Greeks feel ordinary people like the retired pharmacist are being forced to pay for a crisis that was not of their making.

"When dignified people like him are brought to this state, somebody must answer for it," said Costas Lourantos, head of the pharmacists' union in the broader Attica region.

(Additional reporting by Angeliki Kountantou, Writing by Deepa Babington; editing by Janet McBride and Elizabeth Piper)

Amazon Cell Phone Center

Anger over corruption gets public notice in India (AP)

MUMBAI, India – For the last 12 years, a businessman in the northern Indian city of Kanpur has been paying a 5,000 rupee ($113) bribe to government officials to get his income tax refund.

The difference now is that he's talking about it on ipaidabribe.com, a website that serves as an outlet for pent-up frustration with corruption in India.

That discontent — fueled by India's vociferous media and a blossoming sense of empowerment among the middle class — has burst into the open after a series of galling corruption scandals began roiling Asia's third-largest economy late last year. Thousands have taken to the streets, the courts are pursuing rare high-level prosecutions and the government is scrambling to enact a tougher anti-corruption law.

The website is Raghunandan Thoniparambil's way of fighting endemic graft, which many say has worsened as India's economy grows and opens up, creating enormous wealth without adequate regulation and fostering a culture in which everything — from pilot's licenses to school admissions and telecom spectrum — is seemingly for sale.

"Contrary to popular perception, economic liberalization increases corruption in the short term," said Thoniparambil. "What people do not realize is that liberalization and opening markets requires regulation."

Privatization has thrown open huge infrastructure contracts ripe for kickbacks and increasing competition for votes has encouraged India's patchwork of political parties to use any means possible to build up their war chests, he said.

In just over eight months, the site has documented 360 million rupees ($8.1 million) worth of small bribes paid — the largest number of them to police. Over 9,000 messages have been posted and the site has gotten more than 426,000 hits from viewers. The White House was impressed enough to schedule a chat between the site's founders and President Barack Obama when he visited India in November.

Thoniparambil, who spent 26 years working for the elite Indian Administrative Service, said bribery has existed since his early days in government — but cases were isolated.

Today, he said, "every department has their supply chain for corruption."

"It has massive social costs," he added. "It transfers a lot of wealth to those who do not deserve it."

The Asian Development Bank has warned that India — which last year was ranked 87 out of 178 countries on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index — is in danger of sliding into Russian-style oligarchic capitalism if it doesn't shape up.

Allegations of graft involving last year's Commonwealth Games, legislative vote-buying, and a rigged auction for 2G telecom spectrum that auditors estimate cost the national treasury $39 billion have spooked investors, many of whom long tolerated corruption.

Aging Gandhian activist Anna Hazare successfully tapped into the mood of outrage, demanding that India's parliament create a powerful, independent watchdog committee to investigate corruption. His highly publicized hunger strike brought thousands of first-time protesters to the streets, expanding the fight against corruption from the poor to India's growing middle class. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he hopes anti-corruption measures will be introduced during Parliament's next session.

Thoniparambil's site, meanwhile, offers a microscopic map of how paying "tea water" is woven into the fabric of daily life.

Typical postings include people complaining about having to pay bribes to get marriage certificates, passports and driver's licenses. One person even complained of being forced to pay a bribe at a municipal office in order to obtain a receipt to prove that he had paid his property taxes.

Thoniparambil hopes the site will do more than let people vent their frustration. He pours over the anecdotes he collects to uncover patterns of graft and packs the site with tips on how to avoid paying bribes.

The site offers "10 commandments" to avoid corruption, including "Get Receipts," and "Demand in writing why your document/form is being rejected."

Thoniparambil said many of the middle-class Indians now Tweeting against corruption often have themselves to blame for paying "facilitators" to bribe officials on their behalf.

"People of otherwise high integrity and professionalism in their outlook are like lambs led to slaughter when it comes to dealing with the government," he said. "They don't do ten minutes of homework required. Instead they just go pay a bribe."

Thoniparambil is working with the transport department in his home state of Karnataka to come up with ways to reduce opportunities for bribery and has launched a campaign to get India to ratify the United Nations' anti-corruption convention, which would require India to strengthen its anti-corruption laws.

Under India's 1988 anti-corruption law, offenders face a maximum of five years in prison and unspecified fines, but prosecutions are rare and fines rarely exceed a few hundred dollars, lawyers say. Moreover, only illicit transactions involving a public servant qualify as corruption. Under other laws, corruption in the private sector can be prosecuted but rarely is.

Some argue that corruption is a symptom of India's economic adolescence, as reforms begun in the early 1990s transform the country from a state-led to a market-driven economy.

"If you look at the state of the U.S. or the U.K. when they were at corresponding points of their democratic capitalism and evolution, they were just as bad," said R. Gopalakrishnan, an executive director at Tata Sons, the Tata group's holding company. "We're only 20 years into our journey."

Few believe there will be a quick fix to India's longstanding corruption problem — past scandals, after all, have come and gone without leading to lasting change. Critics say New Delhi has not shown the leadership required to stamp out corruption, and many believe eradicating India's culture of graft will require better technology, better education and better management of government services, all of which will take years to effect.

Even if tougher anti-corruption legislation does get passed, the law alone is rarely enough in a place like India.

Corporate lawyer Nishith Desai said India's anti-corruption laws not only need to be strengthened — they need to be enforced.

"Without enforcement, law has no meaning," Desai said.

More than law, some argue that eradicating corruption requires leadership — a strong head of state who can take on powerful families and politicians previously deemed untouchable, said Robert Klitgaard, a professor at Claremont Graduate University in California.

"Anyone who goes after corruption has to make it credible and go after impunity," he said. "It means getting some big fish and frying them."

___

Online:

http://www.ipaidabribe.com/

Browse your computer here